Steve Jobs snuffs App-Store-for-Mac rumor

Mac OS X users won't be limited to Apple-approved apps as are users of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. So says no lesser light than Steve Jobs himself.

Last Friday, a rumor zipped across the interwebs that the next version of Mac OS X - which will be version 10.7 - would institute an App Storesque "gated community" in which only Apple-blessed software would run on Macs updated to that as-yet-unnamed follow-on to 10.6, aka Snow Leopard.

That rumor, first reported by the programmers' consortium Rixstep, was immediately debunked by a developer who pointed out to 9to5Mac that Rixstep's fears of restrictive code signatures were unfounded.

But rumors have legs, whether they're based on reality or not. So one developer decided to check with The Man himself, sending the recently oh-so-reponsive Jobs a personal email asking: "There's a rumor saying there will be a Mac App Store and no software without authorization from Apple will run on Mac OS X. Is that true?"